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I only want to manually back up static folders to Dropbox, without the app syncing all the time.
Device: Macbook Air Operating System/Browser (if using the web): Sonoma 14.6.1 Syncing Status: paused indefinitely Question or Issue: I want to use Dropbox as a backup for folders, manually uploaded by me intermittently. I do not want it to be syncing with my computer. When I installed the app it began trying to sync with folders on the computer, which is not what I want. But when I tried to upload via the chrome browser it kept failing for large folders. (This is rather absurd. If the browser version can't handle it large folders then the app should be able to.) I just want to be able to back up (e.g.) my Documents folder or some subset of it, from time to time, with a date on it, as a static backup. I don't want to work from dropbox, I don't want it to be syncing constantly with my computer. How do I do this? I don't need "why are you doing this, why not just sync?" I don't want to. I don't trust such syncs. I don't want a problem with dropbox to possibly propagate downward into my local files. (You can say this is unlikely -- I don't care, I want it impossible.) Thanks.Hey Creatives! How Do You Make the Most of Dropbox?
Hey Dropbox Community, I wanted to share a delightful story that really highlights the creative ways people use Dropbox in their everyday lives, and it’s all about a business called Pound Cake Makeup💄. Imagine turning your passion into a thriving business, all while juggling the chaos of life. That’s exactly what the founder of Pound Cake Makeup, Camille Bell, did. Using Dropbox, she keeps her business organized - from managing product photos to sharing marketing materials and collaborating with her team, all seamlessly and from anywhere 🌍. It’s a perfect example of how Dropbox is a tool that empowers creativity and entrepreneurship 💡, no matter the size of your venture. Read more about Camille’s Dropbox Story here. What really struck me about this story is how technology can be a game-changer for small businesses and creatives. It’s not just about storage - it’s about connection, flexibility, and making sure your ideas and hard work can flow smoothly, even when life gets hectic. I’d love to hear from you all: 💬 How has Dropbox helped you bring your creative projects or side hustles to life? 💡 What unexpected ways have you found to use Dropbox that made your work or personal life easier? ✨ If you could add one feature to Dropbox to better support your creative or business needs, what would it be? Let’s get the conversation going and inspire each other with the many ways Dropbox can support our passions and projects 🎨🚀. Looking forward to hearing your stories and ideas.Community Member of the Month - July 2025
We blinked and July was over! 🎉 But before we get too far into August, it’s time to celebrate someone who’s been making waves in the Dropbox Community. 🌟 Say hello to our Community Member of the Month for July … Shelladmin 👋 This month, Shelladmin stood out in a big way. As only a new member, they’ve set the bar high with their thoughtful and clear use of our brand new thread templates (you may have seen them when you are going to post something within our Help section). ✨ Their super helpful thread How can I see every folder in my Dropbox account in my macOS Finder? really grabbed our attention. Not only did they break down a tricky issue with clarity and care, but I know this thread will for sure help a bunch of future users tackle the same challenge with confidence. 💡📂 Thank you, Shelladmin! 😁 We’ve got a little surprise for you! Just reply to this message and we’ll make sure your well-earned token of appreciation is on its way 🎁🚀. Think someone else deserves the spotlight next month? Drop their name in the comments below 💬 Want to be our next Community Member of the Month? Get involved, share what you know, start a convo, and spread the love with likes and comments ❤️ You never know... you could be next! 😎Community Member of the Month - June 2025
We’re halfway through 2025 (how did that happen?!), and it's the perfect time to shine a spotlight on someone who's been absolutely rocking it in the Dropbox Community 🎉 Say hello to our Community Member of the Month for June... DoctorBashir 🤩👏! Since joining us two years ago, DoctorBashir has been a friendly, knowledgeable, and all-around awesome presence in the Community. With 18 posts and 3 accepted solutions under their belt, they’ve been quietly (and consistently!) helping others and spreading good vibes. June, however, was a standout month. From sharing crystal-clear tips to troubleshoot pesky problems, to offering invaluable advice - DoctorBashir has been on fire 🔥. One of their most helpful contributions was a super insightful post on stopping the Dropbox folder from opening on startup. Not only did they break down the fix in simple steps, but they also added thoughtful feedback that helps make Dropbox even better💡. Their passion for Dropbox and helping others really shone through and that’s exactly why they’re our star of the month 🌟 Thank you, DoctorBashir, for being such a rockstar in the Dropbox Community! Your time, wisdom, and kindness truly make a difference 🙏 🎁 We’ve got a little surprise for you! Just reply to this message and we’ll make sure your well-earned token of appreciation is on its way 🚀 Think someone else deserves the spotlight next month? Drop their name in the comments below 💬 Want to be our next Community Member of the Month? Get involved, share what you know, start a convo, and spread the love with likes and comments ❤️ You never know... you could be next! 🎯
Amanda creates filing structures to access work and personal files with ease
Meet Amanda, who collaborates at work and at home with Dropbox. This is Amanda’s story… What brought me to Dropbox I started using Dropbox to share documents at work. I was either emailing documents back and forth (bloated inbox, totally inefficient as a filing system!) or using a shared drive that was only accessible from inside the office or via a VPN. How I use Dropbox Being able to share different folders with different people makes it easy to have a home folder where my husband and I keep notes and documents, and to use Dropbox for multiple collaborative projects. I try to create intelligent filing structures and primarily use Dropbox to share documents. My account syncs to my home computer, work computer and phone. I have a "Print Me" folder so if I need to print something I can just toss a PDF in there and print it when I'm at the office. I also have a "Travel" folder that has copies of any travel itineraries so I can always find my travel documents. Selective sync means my travel documents always sync to my phone, but I don’t keep my whole Dropbox on my phone. Tips for the community I have a "Miscellany" folder with yearly folders inside it. That means that random stuff that doesn't have a better home at least gets filed chronologically. It's okay to reorganize but be diligent about putting things in folders. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Amanda about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!How Abdelhamid uses a transparent structure to organize valuable design files
Meet Abdelhamid, a Graphic Designer who uses a transparent structure to organize design files with his team. This is Abdelhamid’s story. What brought me to Dropbox We had two major problems, the first of course was sharing big files among the team. The other, which compelled us to use Dropbox, was the fear of losing valuable files. While there were other options to send large files, keeping them organized and dated was not easy, especially for the not so organized people on the team. Also, the possibility of losing the design files due to a hard drive failure or something else could mean a complete shutdown of the business. How I use Dropbox With Dropbox things are way easier. We simply save a file and the team can access it safely. Also, the possibility to restore deleted files and old file versions brings invaluable peace of mind. The process we apply using Dropbox is completely transparent. We simply link our folders to the Dropbox folder and that's it! Everything is in Dropbox, from backing up important files to sharing the latest iteration of the design. We used to fear the loss of essential design files that we used to print artwork. Before using Dropbox, losing a hard drive meant losing years of work and could mean a catastrophe. We simply sleep better with our files in Dropbox! Tips for the community Your life will become easier if you organize your folders and save locations properly when you first setup Dropbox and related programs. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Abdelhamid about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!Anca never needs to worry about losing files on a crashed computer again
Meet Anca, an online education designer who uses Dropbox so she never has to worry about losing files on a crashed computer again. This is Anca’s story… What brought me to Dropbox My forever love relationship with Dropbox started during my second semester of my master’s degree. I was enrolled in an online course that was saturated in essays, reports, and all sorts of assignments that needed countless days of research and writing. This major report was soon due, and I was juggling this assignment between a teething baby, 40 hours of work, family time, and some sort of social life that was very short, let me tell you. The due date was so close, and I was feeling the need to ask for an extension. We were allowed two breaks during the course and I had never asked for one. I finally gave in, knowing that I was not able to finish in time and the professor was gracious enough to give me not 24 hours, as I had asked for, but a 48-hour extension. Ecstatic about my extra time, I started plugging along and my 20-page paper was finally coming to its final edits. There was very little to do, and my baby needed me. By the time I came back, my computer screen was blue. I never thought this could happen to me. I saw a lovely blue screen and the news that came later was also very blue. All that work, saved only in one place, on my crashed computer! How I use Dropbox My lovely husband came up with a solution, to avoid ever losing a document again. He suggested I save everything on Dropbox. He told me I could work on essays from home or from work and it would all be saved in one place, with no chance of ever losing an essay due to a computer crash. My documents are now safely synced across all my devices. I do not have to track down my last draft. I know exactly where to find it. Tips for the community Plan out your folder structure. Create a consistent file naming pattern. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Anca about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!Jamie saved days of time by storing video production files in Dropbox
Meet Jamie, Head of Post Production on a Video Production team. This is Jamie’s story… What brought us to Dropbox We had no way to share files easily, but needed to share files in the office between our machines, to our home machines or portable devices, and with clients and freelancers. We would spend days sending drives, or uploading zip files. It made versioning problematic. How we use Dropbox Setting up shared folders has been revolutionary. We can have one for clients, one for freelancers, and above all we can keep files on cloud or local depending on the machine. For every video production we set up a folder with a series of sub folders. Different users then choose which of those are cloud based or local. For film shoots an entire project can upload to Dropbox servers overnight. This means our decade old worry of keeping footage secure and off-site is solved with a simple drag and drop. The footage is distributed to key sites automatically for each freelancer to work on. The footage is in our master folder, which is then referenced by editors, motion graphics artists and composers. It’s all seamless and secure. Tips for the community: Undeleting has been a savior. Going online to past projects to unearth a crucial file has saved my skin a few times! Comments and collaboration are so handy if a client is viewing on the go. No matter how big your files are Dropbox seems to Hoover them up. No more FTP or file sharing websites! Keep as much as you can in Dropbox. It’s the safest place for your work. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Jamie about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!How Andy took his life off of flash drives with Dropbox Folders and Paper
Meet Andy, a Dropbox devotee who has moved his personal and work files from flash drives to Dropbox. This is Andy’s story… What brought me to Dropbox Before I used Dropbox, it was such a pain transferring files between by devices when I was on the go, or needed to do work somewhere that wasn't my main computer. I have a similar story to Drew, really. I never left my flash drive anywhere by accident, but it was a pain to carry flash drives or external hard drives around, and constantly copy data to and from them to transfer. With Dropbox, for both me, and our media production, I don't have to think about it anymore. How I use Dropbox Even for personal use, I've been using Dropbox for more than 8 years now, and Dropbox as a whole has just made everything so much simpler. Especially when collaborating, I find Paper to be a big help. I've used Selective Sync a bit, but as far as actual core productivity and help goes, the big two are just the application itself, and collaborating with Paper. In Dropbox, for the most part, I don't really have a structure. I have general folders for related things, but it's sort of all over the place, since it's all personal for the most part anyway. As far as Paper goes, I don't have a lot of structure. For work, everything tends to be organized into folders, and the main folder is shared between everyone. Because of how small our company is, we don't have a whole lot to organize. I myself don't have a lot of organization either. I certainly am glad Dropbox has the features it has, and I use most of them at least sometimes. Tips for the community Plan ahead and keep organized. Know what you want to do, and know your options before you actually do anything. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Andy about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!
